


love knew no logic

by emopidge



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Apologies, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Guilt, One Shot, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, and discovering feelings and shit, but yeh ooc angst, hope u like it, idk - Freeform, if yall like it i will, its 2am and im writing this, its pure angst, may add to it, this is also my first fic so im sorry if it sucks!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 03:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15677223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emopidge/pseuds/emopidge
Summary: ‘love knew no logic’ when he jumped before a lightning bolt, sending him to the ground and to the healer for two weeks of treatment. And when she came with him, clutching his side and sobbing, screaming really for help, love knew no logic.aka zuko gets hit and katara wishes it had been her and spirals.





	love knew no logic

‘Love knew no logic’, Iroh had once told a much younger Zuko when he asked, horrified, how his mother could love a monster. 

‘Love knew no logic’ when Ozai fell and Aang demanded peace with the help of the Water tribe and Earth Kingdom’s authorities. 

And ‘love knew no logic’ when he jumped before a lightning bolt, sending him to the ground and to the healer for two weeks of treatment. And when she came with him, clutching his side and sobbing, screaming really for help, love knew no logic. When she spent the night with him, pacing and sitting and leaning against the cold marble walls. He felt her presence, more comforting than the wraps around his chest or the painkillers they had granted him. 

But love,  _ damn love _ , a silly noun, a word that describes adoration and celestial feelings. A bond closer than spilled blood, and mutual power. A connection through heartstrings and minds and fingers, tangling with other fingers. Love knew no logic, and must've known no reality when she spent the third day in a row by his side. Only eating when the others came, bringing news about the world. Refusing to leave because this was  _ her fault.  _ And when she thought he was sleeping, or passed out, and cried, begging for forgiveness from nobody in particular. It wasn't the tears spilled before, those were angry and passionate and fighting. These were those of the heartbroken; those of a griever; those of a lover. 

Zuko wasn't dumb, she only stayed with him because she felt guilty. Pity. He hated it. He hated her being there with him, but whenever she left the room to discuss things he was too weak to hear, he missed her. He hated that most of all. They had not spoken, neither had tried to, and when she was sent to the Northern Water nation with rations, he felt weaker. Sicker. He was pitiful. 

She was replaced with Toph, bringing books and sarcastic comments. And Sokka, who came with practiced anecdotes and news about his sister and the armies. Both were good company, but no replacement to their silence. Aang came then, not speaking as rapidly and giddily and childishly as he had once. When he visited, Zuko knew he had changed, his 13 year old self was no longer prevalent, now it was the Avatar, the 113-year old Wise One. No wonder Katara still went running for him, once it was out of big-sister nature, but now it must've been out of love. And adoration. He was powerful, and Zuko was still too weak to claim to be the Fire Lord. Aang fixed that too, though. 

Zuko was released, with the warning of not bending or exercising for three weeks. Nor should he drink, party, or do anything strenuous or stressful. Nothing that could harm and electrified shocked heart. He was dressed, bathed, crowned and throned. It felt odd, seeing it empty, Aang just fluttering near by, and Sokka smiling over a tactic table. Everyone stopped though when he came in, long robe trailing him like a bride to responsibility. Katara was there, and suddenly no one mattered in the room but her, racing to him. She looked tired, weaker, but still herself. She smelled like sweat and saffron and gin. And her arms, around his neck, felt like needles, stabbing into his throat. But not in a terribly painful way, in the way that would be painful if she moved away. 

Neither spoke again, even though they should've, but love knew no logic. They just stood, arms embracing the other for what felt forever, but not long enough. She withdrew and smiled, a tight lipped snake smile that she must've learnt while running politics. 

“Thank Spirits you're okay, I don't know what I--” 

“Zuko!” Sokka yelled, Toph following only short behind, Aang bounding along, almost young again. “Welcome back.” 

The day passed in segments, politics--how will we change the Fire Nations mind? How will there be peace nationally with other authorities now?--catching up--when can you visit your sister in her holding cell? Would Mai like to come for tea the next day? Meetings with the board of Officials to discuss said politics--and eating. After too long without proper nutrition, there was a banquet arranged by Suki, someone he was suddenly very fond of, and it almost felt normal. Until a soldier brought a telegram to the Avatar discussing the Earth Kingdom;s recuperation, and a letter written from Iroh, of his request to return back to the Fire Nation. Zuko didn't miss, however, how his Uncle now wrote ‘Fire Lord Zuko’, signing it with ‘General Iroh’. It saddened him more than anything. 

His room was still his old room, he had refused the old Fire Lords chambers. The bedsheets, smelling like spices and dresser restocked with appropriate robes. His crown, however, dropped to the dresser. Or was thrown. He had yet to decide. 

Love knew no logic when she came to him, though. He had been lying awake, searching the ceiling for something--perhaps answers to questions he had yet to ask. A faint yet steady knock, and she appeared. Like a blue phantom, her nightdress glowing silver in the moonlight, her dark skin glowing in the same way. 

“I never apologized.” 

“You don't have to.” Her eyes seemed frail as they searched his chest, then they focused on the scar. Her fingers reached out, they stood meters apart and her fingers hardly grazed him before she retracted, horrified. 

“Now I do.” He scoffed at this. She didn't. “I have to, though, you could have died for my stupidity.” 

“You were not--”

“I was!” Her voice not screaming but louder than her whisper, “I was stupid and rash and you paid the price and I am sorry, I’ll try to fix it with my service, but you'll carry that scar forever.”

“Then I shall carry two scars from my family. Not a single one from you, though.” 

“Scar me, then.” 

“What?” His voice was unbelieving. 

“I let you get hurt, we were partners, and I let that happen. To move on,” she heaved, lifting her arms, “it makes sense if you let something hurt me.” 

“Stop this foolishness.”

“I can't!” She howled, derangement in her eyes. “Can't you see this has hurt me enough, I should carry a mark for it as well. That is the only way things can be right again! This is my fault, and I will never forgive myself for it, but you can. Don't you see, Zuko, if you don't hurt me I will.” 

“You haven't hurt me, Azula did.” 

“But I caused it. I let it happen. It is my fault,” she cried, she summoned water from a jug next to his bed and held it, floating there, until her hands formed it into ice, sharpened on one side. She extended it into a dagger shape. Her eyes found his, in the darkness. “Guilt is eating away at me, Zuko, hurt me.” She whispered. “Or I will.” 

Love has no logic, and he took the ice, cold and melting in his hot palms, clutching her to his chest. When someone was so willingly to cause pain on themself for another, it couldn't be love, but something toxic. Something acidic. She wept her apologies into his collarbone, dripping down to his scar, sizzling. 

“Never do this again, or I shall blame you.” He said, and she nodded. 

“I'm so sorry. For all of this.”

“All of what?” Her eyes found his once more and she swallowed, wiping away snot, which he didn't find as disgusting as he should have. 

“Don't you wish this was normal?” Confusion and she went on, “that we were just two people, friends by chance and mistakes, and not political figures with reputations and lives in our hands.” 

“I wish I met you in another life, Zuko.” She withdrew from him, wrappin her own arms about herself self consciously. “We could have lived your other life. The one in the Earth Kingdom. Open up our own tea place, Zuko, and live peacefully. Let others handle these things.” 

“You’d want that with me?” It was disbelief, that he, Zuko--the banished Prince. The ugly monster. The terrible. The failure of the Nation--was wanted by the a woman like Katara--someone who was very much adored in her Tribe, beauty that was reflected physically and internally. A symbol  of feminine triumph. “But I'm just me.” 

“I’d understand if you wouldn't want that, I suppose it's just a thought.” She said softly, bitterly. 

“I’d want that.” 

“It could never happen,” she countered. 

“But it's a thought I like.” He took her into his arms once more. “If we were normal.” 

Love knew no logic, but sometimes it wasn't love, but need. A mutual need for the other, a person to be with, a balance restored within the other. Within the Sun and the Moon. Sometimes it wasn't love, but not fighting, and holding the other when things got too terrible. Sometimes it wasn't love, but urgency. Sometimes is was want, and lust, and commitment. But sometimes, it was a thought that became love. An escape, found within illogical nights apologizing for hurting the other, as many would come. And when love came, growing like ivy in the corners of the room, they shared many illogical nights apologizing to the other for not finding the other sooner. Sometimes it was intimacy shared in a naked scared world, and finding something much more real that a thought. 

Love knew no logic, but it knew what need was, even in silence-when all was unspoken and all the cards were shuffled, it still could play a full hand when you had bet the most. 

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh comment and tell me how much this sucked
> 
> if yall want more tell me.   
> sorry if there were any mistakes btw


End file.
